After Barbara Walters, the mastermind of the popular daytime talk show The View retired this spring, and out went co-hosts Sherri Shepherd and Jenny McCarthy, too. So there are only two definite hosts for Season 18—veteran View talker Whoopi Goldberg and returning provacateur Rosie O’Donnell. Both are garrulous liberals.
ABC is expected to hire at least one more host before the show returns in September. The formula calls for a conservative to create a “spirited discussion” and replace the right wing publicity magnet Elisabeth Hasselbeck. According to a TMZ source, the candidates are: Abby Huntsman (co-host of The Cycle on MSNBC, and daughter of 2012 presidential candidate John Huntsman, Jr., former Governor of Utah and Ambassador to China) and Margaret Hoover. Hoover is a Republican and gay rights activist who’s married to John Avlon, former Guiliani speechwriter and current editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast. Hoover would certainly add spirit to the discussion. She also brings presidential pedigree—her great-grandfather was former US President Herbert Hoover.
Conservative candidates for The View co-host job: L to R: Margaret Hoover and Abby Huntsman
